We are thinking of staying at La Residence Hue. The least expensive (non-refundable) rate on the hotel's website is $151 per night ($161 for refundable). On Agoda, it's $131 for non-refundable. Two questions:

1) Is there another hotel this nice "in town" -- all things considered, we would always prefer to be in town rather than on the outskirts; and

2) Is Agoda reliable? Why would their rate (so far in advance, this is for 2 nights in March 2011) be so much less than the hotel's own site?

Agoda is reliable. Agoda (and other web sellers of hotel space) get allocations of rooms they can sell at a particular rate. I often (not always) find lower rates at agoda or other such sites than at the hotel's own website. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples: do both prices include tax and service (or not)? do both prices include breakfast(or not)?

Hi SF, We used Agoda for some hotels in Thailand and they are reliable, but keep in mind that their prices do not include taxes, which can be 10 or 15%. You should really look at some of the local agents that fodorites have used & recommended, such as Vietnamstay.com & Tonkin Travel. We're staying at La Residence in Feb & booked through Vietnamstay.com. Their prices, including all taxes and breakfast are:
Superior Garden view 125
Superior River view 135
Deluxe 145
Deluxe River view 165
Deluxe Colonial 170

I was also concerned that La Residence was not in the center of things in Hue & asked about it (compared to Saigon Morin) in a post -- got unanimous recommendations that La Residence was a great place to stay & no one complained about the distance from the center, so we decided to go with it.

I am a big fan of La Residence. Don’t know what gave you the impression it is somehow on the outskirts, it looks onto the Citadel, and is easily bikeable to the Citadel and the town area around that (something I highly recommend, the hotel will rent you bikes quite cheaply). You don’t really want to go to the main business area of town in any event, you will spend your time in the Citadel area and the river.

The hotel which you may be thinking of which IS on the outskirts of town is Pilgrimage Village.

The only other “nice” hotels in the area are possibly the Victory Hotel and the Villa Hue. They are more in the business district, and IMO are not any more convenient to getting to the Citadel or the river to do the tomb tours. I have not been inside them. But I have to say that they would not have the charm of the riverside location nor the beauty of the art deco. (Much better than the Majestic in Saigon IMO which is farily ugly inside.) It’s really a lovely restoration and IMO worth the splurge.

The hotel offers cooking lessons which includes a trip to the local market, you might check their website. I did not take this, but would like to on another trip.

the villa hue is under $100 in november '10

Thanks all. CFW, I have taken your advice and asked Vietnamstay to quote our hotels in Hue, HoiAn, Saigon and Siem Reap.

i think maybe hotel gives promotion for agoda's guest, and you can got it. Don't have to book directly via hotel website, you can book through agoda to save your money

You can also email the hotels directly and see if they will quote you a price. Several of the hotels we emailed didn't even ask for a credit card. We had confirmations from all the hotels in advance and everything worked out well. We like to deal with the hotel when possible so we can cancel if need be.

We are booking through Vietnamstay for Hue, HoiAn and Ho Chi Minh City, and directly through the hotels for Hanoi and Siem Reap. Best prices in both cases. Thanks all.

Hello,
We were in Hue (In July) for a few days as part of a 21 day tour of Vietnam. We stayed at the Orchid, a cute *** star boutique style hotel. It was about $45 per night. The room was very stylish, and the bathroom was quite modern. During our stay, Hue was having "rolling brown outs"... Most hotels were running on generators for 1/2 of the day. This meant minimal a/c... most smaller properties had a/c only in the evenings. We sought afternoon RELIEF each day at the Morin Saigon Hotel. We found this hotel to be the most central in Hue. This hotel had FULL POWER/Air-con during the brown outs. Maybe because this hotel is part of SaigonTourist? Government Owned, I think. The hotel was lovely, had a beautiful courtyard/pool, and they served the best Vietnamese Iced Coffee. A very nice respite from the heat! While were were having I drink, I inquired with the front desk re: rates. Best walk-in was $85. Advance purchase was $125.

Sorry for breaking into this thread but I saw you responses on an old thread about taking Ashes to Egypt. I have been searching the net for information about trying to take some of my wife's ashes to Egypt and saw your posts on Fodor.

I live in the UK and have tried the Egyptian embassy and the consulate, neither really seemed to understand what I wanted to do and they told me it was illegal.

I simply want to take some of her ashes and scatter them in the Red Sea she was a passionate diver.

I was looking for some advice about how to pack them etc. Did you inform the airport or the Egyptian authorities.

Thanks for any advice you can offer

rookie, please email me at dmlove51 at gmail dot com